died 545
Feast Date: June 3
The Catholic Clotilda persuaded her pagan husband, King Clovis of the Franks, to allow their children to be baptized and eventually witnessed his baptism in 496 in Reims, France. But her 34-year widowhood was marked by family fights over power. Clotilda took charge of the three sons of Clodomir, her son killed in 524 by a cousin bent on revenge. Another son, the ambitious Childebert, killed the two older grandsons in her care. The third grandson, called Cloud or Clodoald, gave up his claim to the Frankish throne and became a monk. Clotilda left Paris, devoting her final years to charitable works in Tours.